1815.) © Wainewright on’ Education at Cambridge. '29F 
300/., his mind must be taken up about something else than study 
otherwise the fees exacted must be shamefully and improperly high 
1 consider the cheapness of education as the most important advan- 
tage which any nation can possess. No people can: ever make a 
figure in science or literature if the terms of education are so high 
that it is necessarily confined to the higher ranks of society ; because 
proficiency in science is the result of long and laborious exertion, 
which few will be capable of making who already feel themselves 
sufficiently distinguished by their rank or their wealth. If we take 
a view of the literary characters who have given lustre to Great 
Britain, how small a number shall we find who had either rank or 
wealth to boast of? Have they not in general risen from the lower 
ranks of society? Nature endowed them with talents, accident gave 
them the requisite education ; and that noble emulation, that desire 
of distinction so strongly attached to genius and talents, urged them 
on to exert the requisite industry, and emerge from the obscurity in 
which chance had placed them. 
During each of the years 1788, 1789, and 1790, I resided six 
months at the University of St. Andrews : my expenses during each 
year (including every thing) did not exceed l4/. The next ten 
years I spent at the University of Edinburgh. Here my expenses 
were greater, because I resided in that city during the whole year, 
and because | had to pay for lodgings, which was not the case at St. 
Andrews. But even in Edinburgh the annual expenditure did not 
exceed 50l, It will be higher at present in both places; because 
the prices of every thing have risen greatly since the period to which 
Lallude. But even at present I should consider 30/. or 402. a sufhi- 
cient allowance for St. Andrews, and 1002, for Edinburgh. 
Perhaps indeed it is of more importance that the grammar school 
education should be cheap and accessible to all; because here the - 
boy of genius becomes first aware of his talents, and feels the charms 
that attend the acquisition of knowledge. These charms are so 
powerful, and the new views which education opens so efficacious, 
that when a boy has once felt their influence be will make wonderful 
exertions to enable him to advance in the same career. I knowa 
Gentleman who at present makes a very respectable figure in the 
literary world, and enjoys a very handsome income. He was the 
son of a hind in the south of Scotland. During summer he hired 
himself out to the farmers, and during winter put himself to school 
with the money which he had thus earned. By degrees he got the 
situation of a parish schoolmaster ; and continuing his assiduity, and 
rising by slow progression, he now occupies one of the most lucra- 
tive literary situations which Scotland possesses. I might mention 
other instances of a similar nature. A poor Berwickshire boy was 
in the habit of travelling during the summer as.a pedlar, and during 
the winter he put himself to school with the fruits of his summer’s 
garnings. In this manner he contrived to give himself an excellent 
education, He then set out for London to push his fortune. His 
first situation in that capital was that of porter to a bookseller, This 
